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About Joyce Hung

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Recently, it seems like there are an increasing number of studies supporting the idea that eating too much red meat is bad for our health. Consumption of red meat has been linked to cancer, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cognitive decline, and the list goes on. Here are just a few more studies that will have cows dancing in the pasture.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Part of the enjoyment of eating is indulging in the sensory experience of food. Whether we like a food depends on the texture, consistency, temperature (both physical and perceived, as in cool mints or hot peppers), smell, taste, and even its appearance. Flavor is primarily determined by our sense of taste and smell, and is often a main deciding factor in whether we like a food. Here are just a few links related to the chemistry of flavors.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Some people like egg nog, some people don't. With the main ingredients being sweetened milk/cream and whipped eggs (and maybe salmonella), it's no wonder people added alcohol to make it drinkable. But the beverage is popular enough that there are tons of variations on it. Pretty much any kind or combination of hard liquor can be added, and it can be spiced up with spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. If you like egg nog, especially the alcoholic part, maybe you'll also like the following "disgusting" alcoholic drinks.

Craving tacos and an alcoholic beverage? Two words: Taco Gin. Apparently, gin is just "flavored vodka." To create Taco Gin, steep taco seasoning in 100-proof vodka in a jar for at least 48 hours, strain the mixture through a coffee filter, and cut it down to 90-proof by diluting with a bottle of 80-proof vodka. It shouldn't be a surprise that the reaction to the taste test was "That's awful!" [url]

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from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's probably safe to say that most managers and employees look forward to annual performance reviews as much as they would a painful root canal. Some companies like Adobe have eliminated them altogether, in favor of less formal check-in conversations throughout the year that focus on ongoing feedback. Here are some other companies that are changing the way they evaluate their workers.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's that time of year again, when parents warn their kids to be good, because a big old guy with a white beard in a red suit is watching their every move and is going to find out if they've been naughty or nice. Well, Santa, we've got news for you. We're watching you too, sort of. Both Microsoft and Google have "Santa trackers" that will let kids and parents monitor Santa's location on a map on Christmas Eve as he delivers presents all over the world. For even more Santa fun, check out these links.

Santa Claus doesn't defy the laws of physics! Four top researchers have done the calculations, and the good news is that Santa can indeed deliver presents to all the kids around the world on Christmas Eve, and still remain within the laws of physics. [url]

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

December is a time to celebrate the holidays with family and friends, but it's also when flu season starts ramping up. Several states have already reported an increase in flu activity, and it appears that the predominant strain of flu found in patients who have been hospitalized so far is H1N1 -- the "Swine Flu" that caused a global pandemic in 2009 but is now a human seasonal flu virus. Here are a few links about the flu season, pandemics, and vaccines.

The flu pandemic of 1918 killed more than 50 million people worldwide. The virus was a bird virus that had, by chance, acquired the ability to travel via coughing and sneezing, which enabled it to infect a person who then spread it others, starting the pandemic. Could an outbreak of that scale and lethality happen again? Possibly, but there are many events that have to come together just the right way for that to occur, and there's no way to predict it.[url]

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Many people are freaking out about the potential shortage of Sriracha, the popular hot sauce (aka "rooster sauce") that has taken the world by storm, after it was reported that the new Sriracha factory in Irwindale, California, was facing a potential shutdown due to noxious fumes coming from the plant -- generated by chili pepper processing -- that were causing eye and throat irritation, as well as headaches, in nearby residents. A judge has now ordered the makers of Sriracha, Huy Fong Foods Inc., to stop any work that generates irritating fumes. While the smelly factory may not be welcome in Irwindale, at least two other cities (Philadelphia and Denton, TX) have suggested that the makers of Sriracha sauce relocate to their neck of the woods. In the meantime, here are a few links with more information about Sriracha, as well as potential alternative hot sauces.

"Bizarre Foods" host Andrew Zimmern thinks Sriracha sauce is overrated. While he does love Sriracha, he says there are many better alternative hot sauces, such as the Marie Sharp line from Belize and Crystal from Louisiana. Other chefs recommend hot sauces such as the Rogue, a super-hot Moruga blood orange and Scorpion chili sauce from High River Sauces, and Tobanjan (Japanese) and Kochujang (Korean) sesame-based hot sauces. And if you just can't get away from Sriracha, you can try the Thailand-made Shark Brand Sriracha sauce. [url]

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from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It turns out that many Americans aren't paying much attention to the ongoing battle over labeling genetically modified foods. A recent survey by researchers at Rutgers University found that half of Americans know very little or nothing at all about GM foods, while a quarter have never even heard of them. Furthermore, they found that many Americans are also confused about what types of GM foods are on the market. Meanwhile, heirloom fruits, vegetables, and grains are gaining popularity. These are plants that have been grown and passed down from one generation to another -- some for more than 100 years -- often selected for their superior flavor, as well as other characteristics such as productivity, hardiness, and adaptability. If you want to avoid GM foods, why not spend some time rediscovering heirloom varieties? Here are a few links to get you started.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, scientists are 95% certain that human activities have been responsible for most of the climate change observed on the planet since the 1950s. Apparently, we've already burned 54% of the 1 trillion tons of carbon that would need to be emitted into the atmosphere to increase the average global temperature by 2°C (3.6°F) -- a threshold set by climate negotiators in Copenhagen in 2009 to avoid catastrophic climate change. Unfortunately, even as we try to reduce carbon emissions now, some predict that we'll still surpass the 2°C limit by the end of the century. Will renewable energy be able to curb global warming while also satisfying our energy-hungry ways? Here are some energy-related links.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It seems like every other day we hear about yet another chemical in our food supply that's bad for our health. Maybe it's because the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, which is supposed to help regulate the use of chemicals in consumer products, has failed us with its assumption that "chemicals are safe until proven harmful," and has turned us into unwitting human guinea pigs. Phthalates in vinyl, perfluorinated chemicals in non-stick cookware, brominated flame retardants in electronics, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in coolant/dielectric fluids, and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) in insecticides -- these are just a few chemicals that, over the years, have been discovered to be unsafe, long after they were introduced in consumer products. Here are a few more:

The FDA will likely ban trans fats in foods.Trans fats, typically found in partially hydrogenated oils, help increase the shelf life of processed foods and make deep-frying oils last longer. However, the FDA has now concluded that the negative health effects of trans fats -- they raise LDL (bad) cholesterol and lower HDL (good) cholesterol -- far outweigh their benefits. [url]

The FDA is keeping an eye on bisphenol A (BPA). While there have been a ton of fear-mongering media reports on BPA, the FDA has concluded that at this time, there is no strong evidence that BPA is unsafe at the very low levels we get exposed to through our diet. However, it will continue to study BPA and recommends that people who want to reduce their exposure to BPA should: avoid using plastics with recycle codes 3 or 7; never put hot liquids in containers made with BPA; and throw away scratched plastic bottles. [url]

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from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The U.S. Postal Service hasn't been doing well for a while now. Even though it achieved its first revenue increase in five years, it still lost $5 billion in fiscal year 2013. This marks the seventh consecutive year of losses for the USPS, which lost a record $15.9 billion last year. Part of the reason is that people just aren't sending as much mail these days. Why send a physical letter when you can send a message online? The Postal Service's most profitable product, first-class mail delivery, has been going down -- mail volume peaked in 2000 and has decreased by almost a third since then. On the brighter side, it seems that people are buying more things online now, and the USPS's package volume has been on the rise. As the Postal Service struggles to survive, it will be interesting to see how it adapts to the changing economy in the coming years. Here are a few links to some things about the USPS that you may not know.

Sunday mail delivery used to be the norm. In 1810, Congress passed a law that required post offices to be open for at least one hour on Sundays (and when everything else was closed on Sundays, post offices became the local "taverns" where people would go get their mail and then stay on to drink and play cards). Then in 1912, Congress passed another law that forced post offices to close on Sundays. [url]

Sunday mail delivery is back! As part of a deal with Amazon, the USPS will begin delivering packages on Sundays again. Sunday delivery has already started in New York and Los Angeles, and the service should be extended to many more cities next year. [url]

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from the dept

How do you measure the impact of a scientist's research? Some common metrics include the number of publications in peer-reviewed and high-impact journals, the number of citations, etc. But it's more complicated than just using the quantity and quality of a scientist's peer-reviewed publications to determine their significance in the scientific community. Here are a few more things to consider.

Researchers interested in an academic career, beware! Apparently, in recent years, it's become popular for universities to evaluate prospective hires based on their "h-index," which reflects both the number of publications and the number of citations per publication. However, a recent study has shown that current mathematical models that predict a scientist's future performance based on their past performance aren't reliable and shouldn't be used in career advancement decision processes. [url]

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

If fruits and vegetables tasted even better, maybe people would include more in their diet. Part of what researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are trying to do is to improve the taste and nutritional profile of specialty crops like fruits and vegetables, in the hope that Americans will adopt a healthier diet. For generations, humans have been inadvertently breeding the nutrients out of fruits and vegetables, by selecting varieties that are more palatable (i.e., higher in sugar and starch). Then, somewhere along the way, appearance became important, and farmers began breeding aesthetically pleasing varieties, often at the expense of taste. So, now we're stuck with some pretty bland products. Here are some more tasty links.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Which of these are berries: bananas, watermelon, avocado, strawberries? Surprisingly, all of them, except strawberries. According to the botanical definition, a "berry" is a fleshy fruit that's produced from a single ovary. Strawberries are actually "accessory fruits" which consist of many small individual fruits embedded in a fleshy receptacle. The "seeds" that you see on the surface of strawberries are the actual fruits, and each of them surrounds a tiny seed. Here are some more strawberry-related links.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

It's amazing some of the stuff that gets published in peer-reviewed scientific journals these days. For example, recently there was a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal in which the images appeared to be photoshopped. The photoshopping was so badly done that it was obvious upon looking at the images that they were doctored. The paper was withdrawn after this was discovered, but why didn't the journal editors catch this before it was published? Here are some other examples of questionable things that have made their way into journals.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Remember the Concorde? It was the longest operating commercial supersonic aircraft that flew its last flight in 2003 after 27 years of service. With a cruising speed of 1,350 mph (Mach 2), the Concorde could fly from New York to London in under 3 hours. For more than 20 years, the Concorde was the fastest and safest airliner in the world, but a deadly crash in 2000 that killed all 109 people on board, as well as 4 people on the ground, precipitated the demise of the Concorde, which was already suffering from a general downturn in the aviation industry. There hasn't been a successor to the Concorde since it was retired, but perhaps the following are some possibilities.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Our oceans harbor some of the world's most bizarre lifeforms, like alien-like isopods, vampire squid, and blobfish. In fact, one of the aliens featured in the movie "Men in Black 3" was closely modeled on the creepy and weird-looking blobfish. Here are a few more examples of deep sea creatures that are the stuff of nightmares.

Pyrosomes are like the Borg of the sea. Resembling a giant translucent wind sock, pyrosomes can grow up to 60 feet long, and they consist of hundreds or thousands of individual zooid clones, connected together by a gelatinous tunic, working together to propel the entire colony through the water. Furthermore, they're bioluminescent, with each individual zooid capable of emitting light. [url]

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

People usually don't think too much about how important bees are to the quality of human life. As pollinators, bees play an important role in the survival of crops that depend on them. The mass die-off of bees, also known as "Colony Collapse Disorder," can have detrimental effects on economies that depend heavily on pollinator-dependent crops. Scientists are just starting to figure out what might be causing these mass die-offs, while others are working on alternatives to using bees for pollination. Here are a few links related to the disappearing bee.

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Science isn't glamorous. It says a lot when kids these days are more familiar with Mark Zuckerberg than they are with Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Thomas Edison, or Isaac Newton. So, what better way to inspire and encourage scientists than to recognize and reward them for their innovative work with huge cash prizes? Here are just a few examples of some lucrative science prizes that are being awarded to exceptional researchers.

I wasn't suggesting that McDonald's should sue – they already know that doesn't work. Since they felt the need to respond to an April Fool's joke, I think they should have just ignored the story and the tweets -- unless they were actually willing to "embrace" the attention and give people real answers, not just the usual runaround.

Sorry for the confusion about this story. What I failed to make clear is that after posting that "humorous" tweet, McDonald's Twitter contact was hit with a bunch of questions about the company's plans for reducing waste. It's here that McDonald's brushed off consumer concerns by simply providing a link to their "environmental responsibility" page, rather than giving people a real response by providing specific examples of what they're actually doing. The company missed an opportunity to engage their audience on an issue that some obviously find pretty serious. So, jokingingly responding to the outrageous claim about their food, and then ignoring the more serious concerns about their plans to manage waste, just shows that they believe they can get away with that kind of response due to their size. And perhaps they can. Many businesses, however, do not have the same luxury. And it's probably not the best idea for McDonald's either.